Chaim Nachman Bialik was given the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature on the occasion of the first graduation exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion, held yesterday. when ten rabbis were graduated. A similar degree was given to Claude G. Montefiore, nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore and England’s foremost Jewish scholar.
Dr. Chaim Tschernowitz, who presented Mr. Bialik for the degree said:
“On behalf of the faculty of the Jewish Institute of Religion, I am privileged to present to you Chaim Nachman Bialik, our poet, with the request that you confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature honoris causa.
“Chaim Nachman Bialik is the Hebrew Poet-Laureate of our generation, and the last link in the golden chain of Hebrew poetry from the days of Yehudah Halevi and Solomon Ibn Gabirol.
“The Hebrew people, regardless of party differences, recognize and accept him as the national poet of the Jewish Renaissance. With mighty passion and prophetic utterance he has expressed in the living Hebrew tongue the throbbing of the Jewish people’s soul in its innermost depths: its ache and pain, its vexation and complaint. its hope and aspiration for a creative life in the land of our fathers.
“Moreover he has achieved greatness not alone in the field of poetry, but also in prose, both original and translated, in which he exhibits a style rich and expressive to the highest degree of artistic perfection.
“Chaim Nachman Bialik has also been acclaimed as a creative scholar of our ancient literature, especially in the field of Midrash and Haggada, which he revised and made accessible to the people.
“He has also labored most diligently to improve the methods of Hebrew education, and has published many brilliant textbooks for use in the modern Hebrew schools.
“He has furthermore devoted himself to the upbuilding of Hebrew literature and to its spread among the Jewish masses both in the Diaspora and in the national Homeland.
“In recognition of the above services, the Faculty of the Jewish Institute of Religion has unanimously deemed him worthy of receiving and herewith present him for the Degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature honoris causa.”
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Acting President of the Jewish Institute of Religion, who conferred the degree upon Bialik, said:
“The Institute honors itself and the traditions of the ‘People of the Book’ by conferring at its first Commencement, the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature upon the outstanding figure in the world of Hebrew letters. Chaim Nachman Bialik, singer of your people’s joys and woes, fearless upbuilder of your people’s life, bringer of Israel through fine understanding and unwearied industry of its literary treasures, I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature.”
Hon. Irving Lehman, Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, delivered the Commencement Address at the graduation exercises, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise conferred the degrees, and Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, awarded the prizes.
Announcement was made of the first award of the Bertha Guggenheimer Fellowship to the amount of $25,000, which permits a student to spend a year in Palestine in research and study. This is the first time that this fellowship was awarded. The first recipient is Morton Mayer Berman, one of the graduates of the Jewish Institute of Religion.
The graduates who received the degrees of Master of Hebrew Literature and Rabbi were Zwi Anderman, of the University of Vienna; Morton Mayer Berman, of Yale University; Benjanin B. Goldstein, of the University of California; Max Meyer, of the University of California: Henry Aaron Schorr, of New York University; Abraham Dubin, of the College of the City of New York; Philip Sidney Bernstein, of Syracuse University; Benjamin Myron Parker, Cooper Institute of Technology; Benjamin Hoffseyer, of the Hebrew College. Jaffa, Palestine; and Morris Mordecai Rose, of the College of the City of New York.
Other awards to graduates, in addition to the Guggenheimer Fellowship to Morton Mayer Berman, were the Benjamin Fox Scholarship, also awarded to Morton Berman; the Rebekah Kohut Prize in Bible, established by Dr. George Alexander Kohut to be awarded annually to a student selected by the Faculty as the most proficient Bible student–to Abraham L. Martin; the Sidney E. Goldstein Prize, established by Samuel Wasserman in honor of Dr. Sidney E. Goldstein, to be awarded to the man who, in the judgment of Dr. Goldstein, head of the Social Service Department of the Institute, has given the most hopeful sign of proficiency in the social service field–to J. X. Cohen and Jacob Rudin: the Margaret L. Neumark Prize. established by Mr. S. E. Neumark in memory of his daughter, Margaret, to be awarded to a student for general distinction in his work–to Isidore Breslau; the Bertha Bloch Prize, established by Mr. Charles E. Bloch in memory of Mrs Bloch, to be awarded to the best student of the lower classes–to Herman Saville and Arthur Hirshberg: the John Palmer Prize established by Mrs. John Palmer in memory of her husband. to be awarded the student who, by vote of his fellow-students, shall be adjudged the most meritorious student of the ###academic year–to Harry Kaplan.Mr. Claude G. Montefiore, England’s foremost Jewish scholar, who was in vited to deliver an address at the exercises last night, was at the last moment prevented from leaving England. on account of illness. The address which he was to have given was read by the Hon. Julian W. Mack, of the United States Circuit Court.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
